We left for Hong Kong International Airport
from Changi Airport and reached Hong Kong at around noon.

It wasn’t much of a hussle with our
luggages then, since it was in December, and the temperature there was around
16 degrees Celsius. A simple long-sleeved shirt and a jacket/hoodie/pullover
would be sufficient to keep you warm and cozy.

Check out the fluffy white clouds from
about 10,000 feet in the sky!

Honestly speaking, Hong Kong is easily
navigable if you go on a free-and-easy trip (and you can speak or understand
Cantonese). Unfortunately for my family, I know nuts about Cantonese, and my
parents could only understand some Cantonese. I think Hong Kongers harbor this
deep-seated dislike for Mainland Chinese, and I doubt they’ll be hospitable if
you start speaking Chinese. They aren’t really good in conversing in English,
and I don’t think knowing Japanese helps either. Gosh, I feel so useless. For
convenience’s sake, we decided to just follow a tour group under WTS Travel. It
would even save us the trouble of finding our way around the city, searching
for hotels and places of interests on our own! (Alright, I have to admit that I’m
too lazy to do research.)

Upon reaching the airport, our tour guide
whisked us away on a city tour.

We visited the Hong Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre, with the Golden Bauhinia Square, and true to the nature of
typical tourists, we snapped dozens of pictures of the “Forever Blooming
Bauhinia”, a gift from the Central Government.

Fact of the day: Hong Kong is a special
administrative region, which meant that although it is recognized as part of
China, it has a high degree of autonomy in all matters except for those
pertaining to military or foreign relations.

Then, we headed to Repulse Bay (浅水湾), where
almost all Hong Kong dramas with a beach scene are filmed. The sand was really
beautiful and fine, and the entire place emitted a resort-like vibe.There were extensive shower spots, bathrooms,
and many other facilities. It is a popular spot for locals and tourists alike
due to the panoramic views of the ocean and horizon. I actually liked Repulse
Bay more than Sentosa’s beaches for it seemed a lot more open and spacious!

Our tour guide said that residences in the
area have extremely good Fengshui, what
with the houses facing the sea, and backed by mountains. Hong Kongers are VERY
obsessed with Fengshui, so much so that they have unique buildings, such as the
one with a hole in the centre, at Repulse Bay. Many celebrities like Andy Lau
own properties there!

Our tour group wasn’t very lucky and it
started drizzling while we were at the beach. We had to scurry to Tin Hau
Temple (at Repulse Bay) and take photos while wearing our hideous brightly
coloured ponchos.

Tin Hau temple is dedicated to the
protector of fishermen (Goddess of the Sea) and is one of the oldest temples in
Hong Kong, with a rich history and many devout followers. The beauty of the
statues, sculptures and Chinese style gardens awed me. They were really
photoworthy!

This is the Longevity Bridge at Tin Hau
Temple Repulse Bay. It is said that everytime you walk across the bridge, your
life would be prolonged by 3 days. What are we waiting for? Time to do repeated
shuttle runs across the bridge!

This is the Kwan Yin Shrine at the temple.

The temple’s entrance.

Hong Kong is known for its scenic views of
the bay, so here’s a mandatory tourist shot of Hong Kong’s skyline from the
bay. The weather wasn’t favourable during our time in Hong Kong, so the
lighting in my pictures is pretty screwed up.

We had a pretty decent dim sum brunch, with
awesome crystal prawn dumplings, beeancurd rolls, carrot cake, char siew pau,
congee, siu mai, xiao long bao, and etc. My siblings didn’t even bother to wait
for me to take pictures of the food. They swept it up once the dishes reached
our table, so here’s a picture of dim sum to compensate for it.

(Photo credits to tommyooi)

Our tour guide knew that as Singaporeans,
we’re obsessed with good food, and told us a whole list of recommended food
haunts in Hong Kong. I’m sorry to say I forgot to ask our tour guide for the
list. =(

Doesn’t this remind you of all those
filmed-in-Hong Kong movies about drug lords engaging in shady businesses in
their boats, far away from prying eyes?

We took a sampan ride and managed to
observe the fishermen at work up close. We even saw the authentic floating Jumbo
Seafood Restaurant, and Andy Lau’s private yacht!

I love the vintage
feel of this photo. Am I artistic yet?

By then, I was really sick of travelling in
the coach but no, we still have a few more stops to go.

Victoria Peak’s view wasn’t that
breathtaking as the weather wasn’t good. The winds were awfully strong though.
I spotted a curious building, one that was shaped like a palm, and not
surprisingly, it was due to fengshui. Hmm… Seemed like fengshui really plays a
huge role in shaping Hong Kong’s culture!

What is a city tour without tour guides
dragging you into tourist traps? I’m quite weary of going into such shops that
exist for the sole purpose of scamming unsuspecting tourists, so I totally
tuned out everything the salespeople said about their “world-famous windmill
fengshui jewelry” and their “miraculous Chinese herbs”. Why don’t they just
boast that their products would change one’s life? Worried of failing your
exams? Getting retrenched? Being unsuccessful in your career? Just buy their products
and poof! Problems solved. HAH. As if it would be THAT miraculous. I’m too
cynical to be bought over by their persuasive sales tactics.

Finally! We were released from the city
tour and left with our own time to explore Hong Kong.

It was before Christmas, and the hotel
lobby had this unique Christmas tree made of wooden frames and loaded with
gifts and adorable soft toys.

From the hotel’s bubble lifts, we could see
the neon signs of the streets waving invitingly at us!

It was too crowded at Ladies’ Market for me
to snap pictures, so here’s an image of the night market that I took from
online.

As we strolled along the alleys, the
fragrance of food stalls wafted past us. We could see groups huddled around
small tables, having steamboats in the chilly night. We could spot couples
cuddling, sharing sticks of bbq cuttlefish and “satay-like” food. That night, I
was so tempted to walk along the streets and munch on the street food but we
were attracted to this particular Chinese restaurant that had a poster with a
chef’s recommendation that read: “Roasted Penguin”. Curious, we decided to
enter and try their special dish. It was a disappointment, for it was simply
roasted chicken vertically impaled on a metal pole. How sadistic. I was
slightly, no wait, correction, RATHER grossed out by the amount of oil oozing
out of the chicken and pooling in the metal plate below.

The rest of the dishes weren’t spectacular.
It was what we could get at a typical Tze Char stall in Singapore. The bill
amounted to quite a large sum, so my family felt rather cheated. Perhaps we
should have just had streetside food. At least our tummies could have been more
satisfied and we could have spent a lesser amount of money.

We then wandered around the night market. It
was literal heaven for me! There was a plethora of bags, shoes, clothes and
trinkets on display! Even though the labeled prices aren’t low, you could
always haggle with the vendors and drive prices down. However, do watch out for
imitation goods. I’ve spotted quite a few counterfeit “beats” headphones and
earpieces. I mean, how could genuine beats goods be sold at such ridiculously
low prices?

The next day was quite free and easy, so we
went on exploring more malls and shops. AND I managed to ride in Hong Kong’s
famous red taxi, just like those cool protagonists in Hong Kong dramas who want
to tail the villains to their hideout places! Their taxi fares were quite
cheap, as compared to Singapore’s, and the passenger’s seat was spacious enough
to sit 2 people!

For our Hong Kong trip, it was a short
2-day 1-night stint (We went on to Macau and Shenzhen afterwards). We didn’t go
to Disneyland (Pffft. I’m too old for Disneyland! And I hate queuing.), we
didn’t manage to go to the Avenue of Stars (my bad, I didn’t do research
beforehand and got lost travelling around via MTR) and we didn’t go to Madam
Tussauds’ wax museum (This was my greatest regret for the trip. I mentally
kicked myself multiple times for wasting too much time at the night markets and
forgetting about the operating hours of the museum.)

Although the visit wasn’t exactly very
interesting, at least I got to try their famous Hong Kong dim sum and shop in
their night market. Given that Hong Kong isn’t a big city with loads of places
of interest in the first place, there really isn’t much to do there except for
eating and shopping. Perhaps next time, I would go on a free-and-easy trip,
just to explore the various food haunts. =)